The Dunedin Thunder came away from its first away game of the season with a resounding 8-2 victory over last year's champion Botany Swarm.
The Southern Stampede, though, was not so lucky, going down 6-3 against the West Auckland Admirals in Queenstown.
Paris Heyd marked his first game of the season for the Thunder, returning from a high ankle sprain, with a hat trick.
The Thunder dominated the first period and shot out to a 5-0 lead. The game evened out from there, mostly through the Thunder finding itself on the wrong side of a 10 -5 penalty count.
The game also marked the introduction of Chris Philips, a defenceman, brought into replace the injured Jerraeu Hoihaia. Both are players who have made the transition from inline to ice hockey.
The first period was all Thunder. It skated hard and fast and looked to be a gear ahead of the Swarm.
At his first touch of the puck, Heyd skated through the Swarm defence and put the puck in the back of the net.
The Thunder then scored two shorthanded goals in a minute, to Damian Torfou and Andre Robichaud. Heyd and Bradley Apps added two more goals to end the period 5-0.
As expected, the Swarm came out firing in the second period, and scored the opening goal, but the Thunder regained composure and kept the rest of the period even.
In the final period, Heyd picked up his hat trick.
Then the game took a strange turn, with both teams finding themselves down to three men.
With so much open space on the ice, the Thunder's speed really shone and both Joni Nukari and Jussi Vahamaa picked up breakaway goals within a minute of each other.
In Queenstown, the home side had all the possession and chances but came away defeated.
The Admirals skated away victorious, despite the Stampede having 53 shots on target, while the Admirals managed just 22.
While the Stampede controlled the puck on the ice, Admirals goaltender Fred McKay, of Canada, who was sensational. McKay was a brick wall, repelling shots with ease and clearly frustrating the southerners as tempers flared towards the final whistle.
The crowd, seeing that McKay was going to be the deciding factor in the game and tried to distract him with chants and jeers, but they failed to deter him in what looked like a man-of-the-match performance.
For the most part it was a close game. The Admirals took a 2-1 lead after the first period, and the southerners responded in the second period with a goal through Tommy Zizian.
After a goal in the opening minute of the third period to the Admirals' Ryan Blouin, Zizian responded with his second goal of the night, to tie the scores at 3-all.
But that was as close as the Stampede was going to get.
The Admirals scored two goals in a minute, to Josh Tucker and Dean Tonks.
They then finished off the Stampede with a sixth and final goal, to New Zealand under-18 rep Frazer Ellis.
